Emma’s 4 Month Visit – The Rude Doctor!

So I wanted to tell you about the super unprofessional doctor I had to deal with.

Please note that this post was not written to bad mouth doctors/pediatricians, I wrote it because I wanted to share my experience with ONE doctor.

Clearly I choose to take Emma to the doctor to make sure she is healthy and growing.

I am not against doctors at all, I listen to them and trust their professional advice, but I also trust my instincts and have comments/opinions of my own as a parent.

With that said, here we go…

So I took Emma to the doctor for her 4 month check up and her usual doctor didn’t see her, it was another doctor.. It took me by surprise because I had never met him before, and I wasn’t told another doctor would be seeing Emma. But, no biggie, I just let it go.

The doctor comes in asking if everything is fine, asking about how Emma is eating, and how she’s sleeping and I mentioned that she sleeps well, but for the last two weeks she’s been waking up about every 2 1/2-3 hours to snack, that I would offer her the boob and she would take it for a few minutes and go right back to sleep and that I was guessing that she’s probably just going through some growth spurt, or just wanting mommy time…

He told me to give her cereal because it sounds like she’s hungry and because maybe she’s not getting enough nutrition from my milk, that it’s about quality, not quantity.

So he asked how much she is eating and how often, so I said she eats about every three hours and she gets 3 to 3 1/2 ounces of my milk in a bottle when I’m at work and when she’s with me I just feed her on-demand. He asked if I was supplementing and I said no, so he brought up the cereal again and I told him that I heard that cereal is not that great, so I would wait and see how the next few days would go before I considered it, and that I don’t mind feeding her more often if she wanted it.

Well, that was it…

He starts going off, that I can’t believe everything that I’ve read on the Internet that he is 71 years old and he has been a pediatrician for over 40 years and he has never told a parent to do something that’s “bad” for their children, that I can do whatever I want but that’s his opinion and from his experience that’s what works the best… Basically he got super defensive from the ONE comment I made and I just sat there listening to him go on and on and on about all his qualifications and everything that he’s done and how great he is and blah blah blah so I just sat there quietly nodding my head ok and hoping he would leave already cause I was over him, and I could not believe the tone he was using.

I didn’t even seem upset, because honestly, I wasn’t upset, I was pissed at how he talked to me, but before he left he goes, “I see that you’re upset and I don’t like leaving my patients upset”, and I told him I wasn’t upset, and again, he said, “Well you can’t believe everything you read on the Internetthis generation just reads everything on the Internet, everything they want to know they look it up on the Internet, and anybody can write anything they want on the Internet, you can’t trust the Internet. And after he was done saying INTERNET 27 times in a row, I said, “well, actually, I didn’t read anything from the Internet I have a lactation consultant and I have been working with her ever since Emma was born”. So then he says (with an attitude) “well you didn’t tell me that you’re working with a lactation “person”” and I said, “you just assumed that I was looking on the Internet“, and he says again, “well you didn’t tell me that, but anyways I fight with “them” lactation “people” all the time, what are her qualifications?” And I said “she is a professional just like you are!!!!”

Basically he kept arguing!!!!!! He wouldn’t stop!

He kept saying again and again that he’s never told a parent to do something that’s “bad” for their child, (bro, when did I say that your advice was BAD?!?!?!?!) and that for 40 years he has treated all these kids and they’re all fine and healthy and grown, that he is 71 years old, and he has 7 grandchildren, and he treats all of his patients the same way he treats his grandchildren, and he just kept going and going!!!!! Can you believe it?!

I was just appalled at the fact that not only was he talking down to me, but the fact that I have never met the guy, and I was NOT prepared for another doctor to come in the room!!

I just wanted to share this story, to show how ridiculous this guy was, and trust me, I made sure that I will never see him again because I cannot believe the way that he treated me.

Do not let a doctor talk down to you, or use a tone with you.

You should feel comfortable asking a doctor ANY question and saying WHATEVER you want to say without getting “yelled” at.

This individual was super unprofessional and he chose to let ONE comment push him over the edge, and defending his ego was clearly his priority.